
A. DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



WILLIMANTIC SPIRITUALIST SOCIETY, 



BY JOHN HOOKER. 



U.#££x 



The Fowler & Miller Company, Printers. 






• c • • • 



A DISCOURSE . 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

Willimantic Spiritualist Society, 

At Willimantic, Conn., on Sunday, March 21, 1886, 

BY JOHN HOOKER, 

HARTFORD, CONN. 



Whom have I in heaven but Thee ? and there is none upon earth that I 
desire beside Thee. — Psalm Ixxiii. 23. 



I HAVE some serious and earnest words that I wish to speak 
to Spiritualists, and in coming before you at this time as 
such, and with the message that I wish to bring, I am sure that 
you will listen to me with a patience and confidence that I 
should not meet if I had no sympathy with you in your spiritu- 
alistic views. I have, therefore, a certain vantage ground in 
addressing you, and the fact that I can go before Spiritualists 
sure of this patient hearing makes me feel that I have a special 
duty to address them wherever I have the opportunity, and 
speak the earnest word that they might take in a more kindly 
way from me than from some others. And I thank God for the 
privilege and opportunity. 

I have spoken of myself as agreeing substantially with you in 
your spiritualistic views. There may be a variety of views that 
would be called by that name. Let me say, then, that I believe 
in the reality of communication between the spirits of the de- 
parted and those of us who are still in earth life. There have 
undoubtedly been frauds, which all Spiritualists condemn, and 
honest delusions, which all must deplore. But allowing for 
all these, there is left a great mass of phenomena that not 
only must be regarded as genuine, but, it seems to me, can 



not be explained upon any other theory than that of actual 
communication between human beings that have departed this 
life and those who are still in it. The subject was brought to 
my reluctant attention, some ten years ago, in a way that com- 
pelled me to consider and finally examine it, or give up all 
pretense of honest-mindedness and respect for truth; and from 
that time, as I have had opportunity, I have most critically 
studied and tested its phenomena. For a long time I held 
tenaciously to the theory that they might be explained by what 
is known as "mind-reading," or by some reflex influence from 
the mind of the person receiving the supposed communication; 
but I found that there were facts that this theory could not ex- 
plain. My whole life has been spent in the practice of the legal 
profession, where it has been my constant employment to study 
and apply the laws of evidence, and to determine whether cer- 
tain facts would warrant and establish a certain conclusion, and 
with this training I could not well doubt the correctness of my 
own mental operations in applying the phenomena of Spiritual- 
ism to the theory to be deduced from them. Actual facts are 
God'' 's facts ■, and have a place in the divine economy; and God 
cannot respect, and we ought not to respect, the man who 
sneers at them, or thinks them unworthy of his serious consid- 
eration . 

One of the most eminent naturalists of the day is Alfred 
Russell Wallace of England. One of our leading religious 
papers says of him that he is "an acute and accurate observer, 
and a man in whom the candor of the scientific method is con- 
spicuously illustrated." Mr. Wallace gave the subject of Spirit- 
ualism a candid and thorough investigation, and became, and 
has continued to be, a Spiritualist, and has written an able work 
in its defence. In a recent article in an English journal he 
speaks of the subject as follows : 

" The fact that Spiritualism has firmly established itself in our skeptical and 
materialistic age; that it has continuously grown and developed for nearly 
forty years; that by mere weight of evidence, and in spite of the most power- 
ful prepossessions, it has compelled recognition by an ever-increasing body of 
men in all classes of society, and has gained adherents in the highest ranks of 
science and philosophy; and, finally, that despite abuse and misrepresentation, 
the folly of enthusiasts and the knavery of impostors, it has rarely failed to 
convince those who have made a thorough and pains-taking investigation, and 

P, 



has never lost a convert thus made — all this affords a conclusive answer to the 
objections so commonly urged against it." 

To the Christian investigator it comes with a peculiar claim 
to respect. The culture of the world is very much running to 
materialism — ^ to the old Sadduceeism which said there is no 
spirit, and Spiritualism comes in to antagonize this deadliest foe 
to Christianity. Many is the man who has been converted to a 
belief in immortality by it; many a man has been brought by 
it within the Christian fold. Lord Brougham said: "Even in 
the most cloudless skies of skepticism I see a rain-cloud, if it 
be no bigger than a man's hand. It is modern Spiritualism." 
Joseph Cook said, in one of his public lectures, that he was not 
sure but Christianity, in its struggle with prevailing unbelief, 
would have to appeal to it for help. Then again, the Bible is 
full of Spiritualism. The argument against Spiritualism is an 
argument against the Bible. Thus a leading scientist, in writing 
against Spiritualism, declares that there never has been, in all 
time, a manifestation that has appeared to come from the 
spiritual world that could not be explained upon natural princi- 
ples. To his clear mind there was no use in denying a part 
unless the whole was denied. Then again, we are told in the 
New Testament that there will be a great spiritual outpouring 
and experience — in other words, great spiritual phenomena — 
in the last days. I refer to all these considerations in support 
of my statement that this subject has a special claim on the 
Christian investigator. 

Some of the opponents of Spiritualism, unable to deny the 
genuineness of the phenomena, take the ground that the com- 
munications come from evil spirits. But what sort of a father is 
God, if, with all the disadvantages that we labor under, he lets 
loose evil spirits upon us, and keeps back the good ? I can hardly 
conceive a greater libel upon God. It is as if a father should 
send his son to a distant school, and direct the master to give 
evil companions free access to him, but to keep away all the 
good. Such a father would be a monster. And what less 
would be such a God? The preaching of such a doctrine 
could only make infidels. I verily believe that the enemy of 
all good delights in having it preached. It will not do to say 
that God's ear is ever open to those who seek his protection and 



guidance. Alas ! how many of the children whom God has 
created never heard of him ! How many who have heard his 
name, yet have never learned to pray to him ! To how many, 
to what a vast majority of the people of the earth, is he not a 
far-away, unknown, unreal being, clothed with a certain terror, 
but without anything to attract their love? It is as if, in the 
case I was supposing, the father who placed his boy in a dis- 
tant school, had never disclosed himself to his son, but had 
communicated with him only through an agent, and was known 
to the boy only as some mysterious personage who supplied his 
wants. Against this horrible impeachment of the fatherliness 
of God, I, as one who loves him, and desires to bring others to 
the knowledge and love of him, protest, with all the emphasis 
of which my nature is capable. 

But I did not come before you to convince you of the truth 
of Spiritualism, or of its claims on honest minds. You believe 
all this already. I came to make an earnest appeal to you, as 
Spiritualists, on certain points, as to which I have strong con- 
victions and feel strongly, but as to which it is very likely that 
some of you, perhaps many, will differ from me. 

i. And first, I wish to say to you that, in becoming a Spir- 
itualist, there is no need that a man should give up his religious 
faith, if he has any. I have many times heard it objected to 
Spiritualism that it leads religious men, good orthodox Christian 
men and church members, to abandon their churches and reli- 
gious associations, and apparently their religious faith. I not 
only cannot see the need of this, but it seems to me that all 
that is truly religious in a man's character would only be quick- 
ened and elevated and intensified by it. Look at the matter 
for a moment. The question whether spiritualistic phenomena 
are genuine is wholly a question of fact, as much so as any 
question of fact that was ever tried in a court of justice. The 
question of fact being settled in favor of their genuineness, then 
comes the question how they are to be explained ; that is, by 
what theory. This is purely an intellectual operation. There 
is nothing religious in it. It is not even a moral question. It 
is a question for the honest exercise of one's best judgment. 
Now all these inquiries can be carried on by an earnest Chris- 
tian man, or by a man of no religious belief; by a Roman 



Catholic, an Episcopalian, a Congregationalist, a Baptist, a Uni- 
tarian, a Universalist, or a Jew. And when, after full investi- 
gation, each arrives at the conclusion that the spiritualistic theory 
is the true one, the whole being a mere intellectual inquiry, 
why should either be any less of a Christian, or of any particu- 
lar kind of Christian, or any more of one, than he was be- 
fore? And why should even the total disbeliever, by this mere 
intellectual exercise, be made a different man from what he was 
before? It is true that all may get impressions from communi- 
cations which they suppose they receive that may modify the 
religious or non-religious views which they had previously held. 
I will speak of these by and by; but I am now speaking of the 
effect on their general religious views or character, of their 
arrival at the intellectual conclusion that there are communica- 
tions from disembodied spirits. I am sure that I found no such 
effect upon my own religious character. I had been for nearly 
forty years a member of a Congregational church, and for over 
twenty a deacon. I have not only found no reason or desire 
to withdraw from the church, but I have never, in all my life, 
been so fond of attending upon its religious services ; never so 
fond of the weekly prayer-meeting, in which I almost always 
take a part ; never, I am sure, did I have a stronger hold upon 
divine things ; never did the life and teachings, and death and 
resurrection, and present help of Christ, seem more to me; never 
did I live more as "seeing Him who is invisible." I hope you 
will pardon me for thus referring to my own experience. It is 
too serious a matter for one to let his delicacy stand in the way 
of his making the most effective possible appeal. But this is 
not alone my experience. I could fill pages with like testimony 
from earnest Christian men, who have examined the claims of 
Spiritualism, and been compelled to accept them. They have 
declared themselves made better Christians by their belief in it. 
And why should it not be so? Is not everything a spiritual 
benefit that makes the spiritual world real and near to us? Is 
it not morally wholesome to be brought under " the power of 
the world to come " ? Is it not well to be lifted above this evil 
and transitory world into a higher atmosphere ? 

Thus, Prof. Barrett, a British scientist and a Fellow of the 
Royal Society of Edinburgh, says: "I know, and rejoice in, 



the blessing Spiritualism has been to my own faith, and that of 
several dear friends of mine." An American clergyman, in a 
recent letter which I have seen, says : "To this subject [Spir- 
itualism] I have devoted much study for several years, and in as 
candid and teachable a spirit as I could attain ; and I am satis- 
fied that I have obtained from this study the most valuable 
knowledge, and especially an aid to my religious faith, of which 
I would not, on any account, be destitute." Another Christian 
writer speaks of it as "shedding a new and glorious light upon 
his pathway, and opening his eyes to clearer and higher percep- 
tions of God's truth, his wisdom, and his wonder-working 
providence." The well-known English writer, S. C. Hall, the 
founder and editor of the Art journal, says: "As to the use 
of Spiritualism, it has made me a Christian. I humbly and 
reverently thank God that it has removed all my doubts. I 
could quote abundant instances of conversion from unbelief to 
belief — of some to perfect faith from total infidelity. I am 
permitted to give one name, that of Dr. Elliotson, who expresses 
his deep gratitude to Almighty God for the blessed change that 
has been wrought in his heart and mind by Spiritualism." 
Pages of like citations might be given. 

It may be said that it is impossible for one who believes in 
Spiritualism to hold to all the dogmas that he has been taught 
in the churches, and that so a departure from his old beliefs 
becomes unavoidable. Well, there are dogmas that commanded 
the general Christian belief a century ago that the best religious 
sentiment of the day has discarded, and some are still professed 
and perhaps largely held that are losing their hold upon 
thoughtful Christian men ; but I hardly know a doctrine now 
fully adhered to which a thorough Spiritualist may not hold. 
My own belief had been considerably modified before I gave 
any attention to Spiritualism, and I have had no occasion 
to modify it further since I became a Spiritualist. I ought, in 
candor, to go into particulars a little. I had long been settled 
in the belief of a future probation. Spiritualism confirmed me 
in that belief, but did not give it to me. I meet few intelligent 
Christian men, outside of the theological schools, and perhaps I 
should say (qualifiedly) outside of the ministry, who do not 
hold the same view. The doctrine of a final and unending 



punishment of all who die impenitent has lost its hold on the 
Christian mind. If this be an error, Spiritualism is not the 
originator of it. But you will say : You cannot still hold the 
doctrine that Christ was divine, and that by his death he ap- 
peased an angry God, who would otherwise have consigned the 
whole human race to perdition. I think, my friends, that the 
life and death and resurrection of Christ are the greatest factors 
in rescuing the world from the power of sin, and in the salva- 
tion of men, but I think he came to reconcile the world to God, 
rather than to reconcile God ; and I am not able to make him 
merely a man. Such communications as I have had, or sup- 
posed I had, from friends in the other world, have told me, in 
reply to my earnest inquiry about what they could say as to 
Christ, that he is at the head of the spirit world, not wearing 
a crown or royal robes, but known only by the radiance of his 
countenance, and working, working, as here on earth, among the 
low and wretched spirits of that world, to raise them up and 
bring them to the light ; — a most entrancing conception of him, 
far beyond any that puts him upon a gorgeous throne, with 
myriads prostrating themselves before him; a conception of him 
that seems most in accordance with what we know of his 
character, preserving still the human nature and aspect which 
he bore on earth, and with which he ascended. I verily believe 
that it will be in that form that we shall see our Lord, and en- 
gaged in that saving work ; and it is the constant comfort of 
my heart that I shall, before long, be permitted to engage in 
that same loving and rescuing work with and under him. 

I say then that we can accept Spiritualism and yet retain, in 
our belief and in our affections, all that is vital, all that the 
Christian intelligence of the age will continue to accept, of what 
has been taught as Christian truth. Oar hold must stilt be on 
God ; our trust must still be in him ; and for him our love. We 
must still be able to say, in the words of our text, " Whom have 
I in Heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I 
desire beside Thee." 

2. My second word of caution and counsel to Spiritualists 
is this : 

Do not accept communications from spirits in the other world 
as coming with anything more than human authority. I believe 



that there is often a feeling among Spiritualists that everything 
said from the other side has about it a certain superhuman, 
almost divine quality. It seems reasonable to suppose that our 
friends over there have a higher wisdom than ours; or, at least, 
that, with their larger knowledge, they are better able to advise 
us wisely; but many Spiritualists go far beyond this, and forget 
entirely that they are merely human, with limited knowledge, 
knowing perhaps no more than we of the mysteries of God, and 
certainly having nothing of his foreknowledge, and nothing of 
the power of prophecy. They have larger data to act upon and 
to judge of, but this is all. It is only human judgment after 
all. Their talk about the future is little more than human con- 
jecture, or, if more than that, it is only a more enlightened 
human wisdom, dealing with probabilities. 

In this view, it will never do for us to build up a system of 
theology on what they say to us. They only tell us what they 
think about it. And what one thinks about it often differs from 
what another does. Their idiosyncracies, even their old preju- 
dices, affect their views. They have not got beyond the region 
of human imperfection. Especially is this so of those who have 
been but a little time in that world. Truth, in its fullness, does 
not burst upon them. They learn it gradually. It is one of 
the delights of that world that we shall always be exploring and 
learning there. There must be a vast difference in the mere 
matter of knowledge between the childhood of spirit life and 
its mature age. I have no doubt that many a spirit who went 
over with little spiritual experience is often, even after months 
and years, behind some people in earth life in spiritual experi- 
ence and attainment. 

There is perhaps nothing that persons holding communication 
with departed spirits more often seek to obtain than advice as 
to their action in some matter of practical importance. Per- 
haps there is no serious objection to this, if we accept it only 
as the advice of a friend, and exercise our own best judgment 
in the matter. But I believe that God never meant that we 
should relax at all our hold on him for guidance. The true way 
to obtain guidance is still the old way. Go to God, in prayer, 
and trust, and he will, in some way, impress his will upon us. 
And it is his w/Y/ that we want, even if it leads us into disaster, 



or what we call disaster. If he leads us into disappointment 
and trial and sorrow, it is because disappointment and trial and 
sorrow are what we need, and anything else would be a real 
calamity to us. It may be that the very way he adopts for 
reaching our minds is through the spirits of our departed 
friends. 

Let us, then, go to him with our wants. Even if our friends 
advise us, let us still carry their advice to him for confirmation 
or rejection. With the spirit world full of friends, with whom 
we have the most loving communion, let us still be able to say : 
" Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none on earth 
that I desire beside Thee." 

3. And thirdly. Do not let us get the impression that we 
may lead irreligious lives and all will go well with us. I have 
never had the direful effect of sin impressed upon me so strongly 
as it has been by w T hat I have learned through Spiritualism. 
I have never had the transcendent importance of character so 
impressed upon me. The old view, put before a wicked man, 
of a hell that was inevitable, whose tortures were inconceivable, 
and whose duration was endless, used to fill me as a boy with 
a vague horror, but as I emerged from childhood it grew more 
and more vague and unreal to me, and long before I began to 
confess even to myself any doubt about it, I can see that it was 
not making the impression of an actual truth upon me. But 
Spiritualism teaches that if a man descends into the pit of sin 
here, he has got to work his way out of it over there, by slow 
and most painful struggles upward, perhaps for long years. 
The hell is in the man's own soul. And no picture of a mate- 
rial hell has ever overdrawn the horrors of that inward hell. 
And one of the agonies of that world will be, over work here 
left undone — opportunities neglected — wealth used only for sel- 
fishness — a life of indolence and uselessness where the world 
needed so much done. A few years ago I had a long conver- 
sation with a very wealthy man about the duty of using his 
wealth for good. I saw that I made no impression upon him. 
Not long after the conversation he died. After his death I was 
in another city and was asked by a friend living there to go 
with him and see a medium in whom he had great confidence. 
I did so, and to my surprise the spirit of the man of whom I 



IO 

have spoken announced himself and addressed me. It was 
indeed an entire surprise to me, as I had not thought of him. 
I at once welcomed him, and soon after alluded to my con- 
versation with him. "Yes (said he), I remember it well. You 
was right and I was wrong. Yes, you was right and I was 
wrong — wrong — WRONG. To be happy here we must be 
good on earth." Early in life I knew intimately a young man 
of rare talent, who was brought up in a christian home, but 
who had become irreligious and profane in the last degree. In 
the hope of rescuing him I repeatedly remonstrated with him ? 
and in his last illness labored by his bedside to bring him to a 
change of feeling. He died after a few years, and died as he 
had lived. More than fifteen years after his death I was sitting 
in a room with the wife of a clergyman in Boston, who (the 
wife) had remarkable mediumistic gifts, which she used occa- 
sionally for her friends, and wholly without compensation. 
She was a sweet, motherly, christian woman. She had been 
talking with a lady who sat near (we three being the only per- 
sons present), when suddenly she seized my hand in a most 
convulsive manner, and in an almost shrieking voice, called 
out " Help me ! help me ! You did help me in life. You can 

help me." I at once knew who it was and I said, "A , is it 

you?" He said, "Yes — Help me, help me." I began to say 
something, when with a failing voice he said " All gone — all 
gone " — -and that was all I ever heard from him. 

I could give other recitals, equally dreadful, but I intended 
to give only illustrations of the fact that our sins will find us 
out. Spiritualism teaches us this, and that there is no evasion 
of them. The Scripture still holds true, and awfully true, which 
saith: "Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever 
a man soweth that shall he also reap." There is no law more 
sure than this law of retribution. 

Let us not forget this in the hymns which we sing of "The 
sweet By and By." Those hymns are well enough in their 
place and full of comforting power. But let us sing also some 
of those grand and heroic hymns that have given strength to 
our fathers in their conflicts with temptation and the powers 
of darkness. Such hymns as 



II 

My soul be on thy guard, 

Ten thousand foes arise ; 
The hosts of sin are pressing hard 

To draw thee from the skies. 

Oh, watch and fight and pray ! 

The battle ne'er give o'er; 
Renew it boldly every day, 

And help divine implore. 

The wages of sin are death ; not necessarily death eternal, but 
with all the horrors of such a death while it lasts. It may be 
escaped from by repentance and reformation, and I fully believe 
that Christ labors for the repentance and reformation of such 
lost souls. No words of doom were ever uttered more terrible 
than those uttered by the loving and compassionate Christ. 
He saw what this terrible penalty was, and his words, I verily 
believe, were in no way words of exaggeration. To an unre- 
pentant sinner there is an endless hell. When he repents his 
hell ceases; but not till then. He never reaches the point 
where repentance will not save him. Christ came "to seek and 
save the lost; " and he is " the same yesterday, to day, and for- 
ever" And God's mercy, the Psalmist tells us, is "everlasting." 

Now in this world of temptation, where it is so easy for one 
to go astray, Spiritualism, while it leaves us all the divine help 
that we ever had, teaches us this great lesson, really taught in 
the Gospel, but so emphasized by Spiritualism as to make a hew 
impression upon us, that if we open our hearts to good spirits, 
they come in and help us, and if to evil spirits that they come 
in their demoniacal power and possess and curse us. We must 
keep ourselves pure if we would have the help of pure spirits. 
We must be unselfish, and upright, and truthful, if we would 
make our hearts a castle that devils cannot enter. And if we 
open the door and let in devils, the good spirits cannot abide 
there and we become the prey of the evil ones. I cannot con- 
ceive how the lesson of virtue and godliness can be better taught 
than it is by Spiritualism. 

Spiritualists therefore, who seriously and earnestly accept its 
true teachings, should be better men and women than others 
around them who do not share their belief. I say they should 
be. Are they so? I believe there is a common impression that 



12 

they are not. I must say that among those whom I know are 
some of the most truly christian people in the sweetness and 
unselfishness of their lives, in what I may even call a consecra- 
tion to all that is good, that I have ever known. Yet my 
knowledge of the mass of Spiritualists is very limited. What- 
ever they are in fact, they are most utterly failing to apply their 
own principles, if they are allowing themselves to live below 
the highest standard of virtue. 

We must remember that God reigns — that all power rests 
with Him — that to Him we must give account. But we may 
comfort ourselves with the thought that He is our Father — ever 
ready to help us — asking for our trust and our love. And after 
we have wandered in imagination over the whole universe, we 
ought not only to be able to say, but to love to say, "Whom 
have I in Heaven but Thee ? and there is none upon earth that 
I desire beside Thee." 



Note. — I wish to add a few words upon a point that I had not time to dwell 
upon in the foregoing address. I have repeatedly heard it charged against Spirit- 
ualism that the believers in it are often immoral men. I think there may be a 
basis of fact for the charge. But it is no more of an argument against Spirit- 
ualism than it would be against Christianity that many men believe in it and 
are yet immoral in their lives. In neither case has the thing believed in 
wrought its legitimate work. It is obvious that a man may have an intellec- 
tual belief in either without its affecting his moral character. It ought to do 
so, but it does not. The belief in spirit communication is wholly an intel- 
lectual belief, founded on evidence — on an investigation of facts. One may 
reach that point and be wholly unmoved by the great truth that it teaches 
him. It does not discredit the cause that he has come to believe in, that the 
belief has failed to do its proper moral work on him. It is to his own per. 
sonal discredit, and that is all. Look at Paul's description of the Corinthian 
church, especially in the 5th chapter of his first epistle to the Corinthians. Their 
conduct was a disgrace to themselves, but it did not prove Christianity false. 

A singular argument against Spiritualism was addressed to me by a clergy- 
man in a recent conversation. He said there were a great many more non. 
religious people, than religious, that believed in it. I said to him that, in the 
first place, a fact could not be any more or less a fact from the character of the 
persons who believed or disbelieved it. In the next place, that with the 
clergy condemning it, and the constant assertion that it was a demoralizing 
belief, it could not be expected that church members would very largely look 
into it, or be ready to accept it, and where they had come to believe in it 
that they would make proclamation of the fact, though I believed there were 



a great many more than he suspected who were really believers in it. And 
finally, that it would naturally be so with any new truth that was not accept- 
able to the churches. I adduced the case of the discover}- by science early 
in this century that the world was not created in six days, by so many suc- 
cessive fiats of God, as we had been taught to understand the Bible as teaching. 
The church was shocked at this attack upon the Bible, and threw itself into 
antagonism to it. In thirty years from that time it could probably be truth- 
fully said, that there were ten believers in the new theory outside of the 
churches where there was one within them. Yet these outsiders had the truth 
with them and the insiders had the delusion. And this truth that the 
" infidels,' ' as they were regarded, were championing, was God's truth, and is 
now accepted as such by all the Christian world. 

The church I believe is making a great mistake in denouncing Spiritualism, 
and doing what it can to bring into discredit and odium those of its members 
who come to believe in it. It made the same mistake in its treatment of the 
early anti-slavery movement. The writer came upon the stage soon after Gar- 
rison had begun to strike his first blows at the system of slavery. No one much 
younger than he can have a conception of the position of the churches at that 
time towards him and his followers. It has been well said by a writer on the 
subject that " it was a few fanatics on one side and all the churches and society 
on the other.*' Yet these hated and ostracised abolitionists were in the right, 
and the churches and society in the wrong. If the churches as a body had 
stood by the abolitionists instead of denouncing them, they would never have 
become a hostile organization, denouncing the unfaithfulness of the churches. 
They did many extravagant and offensive things. But so do all reformers. 
The world would never move if there were not some men so zealous as to go 
too far. It is the more the duty of men who have some leaven of conservatism 
in their constitutions, to join in the reform, that they may secure a better 
average of decorousness in the conduct of its advocates. Benjamin Du Plan, 
the "Gentleman of Alais," who lived in the South of France a hundred and 
r.irs ago, was a noble specimen of a true reformer in the highest social 
position joining with extravagant zealots because he knew they were on the 
Lord's side. The Hartford Courant, in an editorial notice of his life, recently 
published, says : "To be a Protestant was to be an outcast in every way. 
It was this lot that young Du Plan chose for his worldly portion. The reader 
will not be surprised to learn that there was Protestant fanaticism as well as 
Catholic bigotry, and that there were abnormal developments of religious zeal. 
"Many women and girls took up the character of prophetesses and preachers, 
fell down in ecstacies, and went through all the scandals of fantastic demeanor 
and imposture. Du Plan was deterred from his choice neither by the extrava- 
gance of some of the sect nor by the persecutions. It is largely owing to his 
labors that the French Protestant Church is alive to a.: 

Truth almost always makes its first appearance in a despised form. Christ 
was born in a stable. When he began to preach he was called a glutton and 
wine-bibber. The old prophets with their long hair, their heads covered with 



14 

ashes, their garments of sack-cloth, and their denunciatory proclamations 
in the market-places, were the " cranks " of their time, and very repulsive 
ones, too ; yet God made them his mouth-piece. What more uncouth than 
John the Baptist, wearing a goat skin and living on locusts and wild honey as 
he wandered about, and yet he was the forerunner and herald of Christ. So 
it is through all history. The question with every soul is, shall I espouse the 
cause of God's truth in its poverty and shame, or shall I wait till it has 
made its way to public recognition and "society" has put its stamp of ap- 
proval upon it? Christ was willing for the sake of truth to become "of no 
reputation." Are we ? I believe no soul is dearer to God than the one which, 
whatever religious or non-religious name it bears, stands fearlessly for God's 
despised truth, and that our Lord's warmest welcome is given to such a soul 
as it enters the spirit world. 

" In that world Truth clasps her adorer to her breast, 
Saying — Remember that on earth I was thy guest." 

" Not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are 
called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world that He might 
put to shame them that are wise ; and God hath chosen the weak things of the 
world that He might put to shame the things that are strong ; and the base 
things of the world and the things that are despised, that He might put to 
naught the things that are." I Cor. i. 26, 27, 28. 

What more humble instruments were ever employed than those whom 
Christ chose for his apostles ! 

Shall we stand with those whom the world counts wise and mighty and 
noble, or with God and those despised ones who, perhaps in a very imperfect 
way, perhaps half blindly, are yet the bearers of his truth, and his commis- 
sioned messengers to men ? 



h£R£SI of congress 




022 007 262 9 



